The walleye bite has started on the river. Pool 3 is a little slow with lots of small fish at Prescott. The bite near Redwing has really started to turn on. Some of the big females have spawned. Pole lining has worked better for me then jigging. Still time to book a trip for the spring bite.

Check out the beautiful sunrise on Lake Mille Lacs this morning. While I am vacationing in sunny Arizona, a friend is taking advantage of our ice house. Such a beautiful sunrise. My wife and I are certainly enjoying the sun in Arizona. It's been in the 80's everyday. That will soon come to an end when we travel home tonight.

Here is a beautiful sunset from last night when we visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. It was gorgeous. They had a light show after dark that was spectacular. Not my usual thing to do but, it was amazing and it was great for a one time visit.

So back to Minnesota tomorrow morning. Up to the fish house next weekend for 1 last time as walleye season closes there next Sunday. Then it's time for open water fishing in the near future. Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers pool 4! Can't wait. Getting some guide trips booked. . . are you ready to join me for a day of fun?

Mike Westerberg and his friend Jeremy used our fish house on February 8 & 9 and had a great time. Mike caught this big perch - a personal best. Love the facial expression. Guess he was having a great time!

Jeremy with his personal best walleye. 24" He said; "what a blast!" They also caught a number of small walleyes.

Last weekend I went up to the fish house for a few days and brought my grandson Danny along. I'm so happy that my grandson likes to fish. I certainly love to get kids introduced to fishing.

It was a little slower this weekend but we caught a number of smaller fish. The biggest for the weekend was a 17" fish. It sure is going to be a short ice fishing season with the houses due off the ice on February 28.

We finally got out Ice House out on Mille Lacs on January 22. We are trying a new spot on a flat this year. Still out of Hunters Point. I spent the better part of the weekend up there after getting the fish house all set up. The ice thickness was 17" where we were at. Not much snow on the ice.

The fishing was excellent. The Rattle Reels kept me going all night. During the day I was jigging. This walleye was 16". I caught a number of them in this size range leaving me to believe the future of the lake is looking good. The lure I am using here is a Johnson Thin Fin. We are in 29 feet of water.

My son Matt joined me and caught this large perch. In fact we caught a number of large perch. All in all it was a great weekend of ice fishing. Looking forward to the next time.

We finally have ice! While the fish houses aren't out yet, I still wanted to get out fishing so I headed up to Mille Lacs early this morning with my portable and 4 wheeler. I checked in at Hunter's Point (a favorite spot) and headed on out to a flat on the wheelers with my friend and neighbor John. We were going to look for walleyes.

It was a little tough going on the lake, got stuck with the wheelers a couple of times but we persevered and ended up having a great time. Yes the temps were dropping and the wind was picking up but, when you've been deprived of ice fishing until January, you just have to suck it up.

We fished in about 28 feet of water with a minnow on a dead stick pink hook and a purple spoon and minnow head. The walleyes were biting although they weren't in the keeping slot range. Caught many walleyes in the 13-17" range. The future of the lake looks great with this kind of fish being caught.

It's gotten colder in Minnesota - finally seeing ice on the Lakes. Hopefully the fish house is out soon. I heard Mille Lacs froze over yesterday which is where I have my ice house. I'm on the east side out of Hunter's Point. So, with that in sight, I spent some time today organizing my tackle and putting some new line on my ice fishing rods. Maybe I can get out on an area lake tomorrow with my portable house.

From the looks of things in this tackle box, I could do a bit of organizing. Most of this tackle is from Northland tackle which is one of my sponsors. They make excellent lures. Visit their website here.

On my Fenwick Ice Fishing rods, I have pflueger reels. I put on Trilene XL green. I am very happy with all of these products. I've had these rods and reels for many years. Check back later to see if I am able to get out on the ice in the near future.

Saturday, December 5, 2015 was a great day on the water. With the unseasonably warm temps, it was a great day for walleye fishing on the St. Croix. I headed out with 2 great friends John and Denny. We filled the live well and are looking forward to a few great meals of fresh walleye.

We were trolling with lead line and did a little pole lining as well. We were thrilled when we had a number of times when we had more than 1 fish on at a time. We even had 1 time where we had 3 on.

Here is my friend John with one of his catches. We were dressed for the weather and until the wind came up later we weren't too cold. We launched at Prescott as we had to be careful that the boat ramp wasn't too slippery for the launch.

Denny says he never catches many fish by himself - but he always catches them with me as a guide. Another recommendation for Jim Peters Outdoors Guide service

I will be moving to Ottertail, MN as of 4/13/2015. I will still be guiding in the Hastings area as well as Ottertail Lake. Nothing has changed, Just expanding my area. My new boat for this year is a Lund 202 Pro V GL with a 250 Optimax motor. First time running a glass boat, should be a smooth ride. Looking forward in taking you out for a great fishing trip.